There has long been an ambivalence about the man who was both the ultimate betrayer and the means by which God’s plan was fulfilled. The author of a new book visits the lonely place where the renegade apostle took his own life

The stripping by Pope Francis of Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s rights and privileges of his office, coupled with an admission by his successor Archbishop Leo Cushley that his behaviour had made the Catholic Church in Scotland “less credible”, might not be enough, sadly, to bury this sorry affair and let healing begin.

Rarely has there been so much uncertainty about Britain’s political future or such a lack of confidence in the democratic process. The polls show that the two major parties are level, as various smaller parties jockey to maximise their influence. The serious degree of political disillusionment among the public may ...

Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s resignation from the ‘rights and privileges’ of his office removes him from public life. He has admitted sexual impropriety but questions remain about his management of the diocese

There has long been an ambivalence about the man who was both the ultimate betrayer and the means by which God’s plan was fulfilled. The author of a new book visits the lonely place where the renegade apostle took his own life

Pope St John Paul II once said that Jews are the elder brothers of Christians but this was not always as well understood as it is now. Since this journal’s foundation 175 years ago, there has been a profound shift in relations between the faiths

Benjamin Netanyahu cut an imperial figure when he appeared before thousands of supporters in Tel Aviv last week. Having just achieved a fourth election victory against all the odds, the Israeli Prime Minister was in no mood for modesty or magnanimity.

Most parishes today have in place the physical arrangements that will help people with a disability who come to Mass. But sometimes a gentle reminder is in order of how disabled Catholics can contribute

A church historian at the University of Münster, Professor Hubert Wolf is an eminent authority on the archives of the Holy See. He leads a team of scholars publishing online at www.pacelli-edition.de the reports, contained in the Vatican’s Secret Archives, that Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, wrote while papal nuncio first in Munich and then in Berlin (1917-29).

It is a happy consequence of the Coalition Government’s legislation creating fixed five-year parliaments that this exhibition can be timed precisely to coincide with a general election campaign. In the years when it was in the prime minister’s gift to give a minimum notice of 17 working days of a poll, such topicality would have been achieved by coincidence.